She was staring at us as if she was seeing a ghost. She quickly got off her seat, walked towards us and asked in the most excited voice, “are you ladies from Canada? No? Oh…… well are you volunteers? What are you doing in Guyana?”
This is what started a 45 minute talk about different ministries in Guyana we would be able to partner with. And soon as she stepped out of the room my team and I just sat in silence with our mouths open and tears in our eyes for a good 5 minutes.
You see, Wednesday was the first time my team and I have been alone, just the 6 of us, since World Race has started and to be honest, I was nervous. Not only were we alone, but we also had no contact or ministry or really any idea what these next 10 days in Guyana would look like. All we were told is that this is the first time the World Race has entered into Guyana and that they wanted us to “Ask the Lord” to find ministries to partner with so that future Racers can enter in here, and that is exactly what happened Wednesday evening.
We began our Wednesday morning by praying to hear what God wanted us to do that day. After going to the local outdoor market to buy groceries, (and meeting Robby the produce man; Yvonne, a lady who gives us the hook up on where to buy everything at a good price; and a little girl named Elaine who was so shy but had the cutest smile) we decided to do our weekly bible study. Now we could have easily walked to our normal hangout spot, Roti Hut, which is just down the street from where we are staying or even stayed at home, but we all had the same feeling that we should walk the mile/ mile and a half to a cute coffee shop called Oasis even though we would only have an hour and a half before it got dark and we had to head back, so would it be worth the walk?..maybe not, but we knew we had to go.
Along the way we stopped at St. George’s Cathedral (which happens to be the oldest wooden cathedral still being used) and there we met Judy, who told us about an organization that helps kids with special needs. After praying with her we finally enter Oasis and as soon as we entered we saw a man whom a couple of our squadmates had met earlier in the week. William shared with us a beautiful poem about the responsibility we have to help kids and raise them with God in sight (Okay God we see the pattern here). We began walking to a room in the back of Oasis and as my teammates walked into the room I notice a lady sitting at a table just staring at us, mouth opened and all.
Before even fully telling her what we were doing in Guyana, Jessica Hatfield began spilling out one ministry after an other that she works with. She told us of two in particular, the first one is called Ruimveldt Children’s Aid Centre. Here kids around a poor community come to play, do homework, learn life skills, get simple medical attentions and also come to eat since most only eat once a day. Thursday and Friday we went to the Centre and played with the kids, did art project and gave lots of hugs. Along with these last two days, we are beginning the process to set this centre up for future Racers to come and volunteer here.
The second ministry she is a part of is working with indigenous tribes (the Arowak, the Caribe, and one other she didn’t know the name of) to get their youth to continue to invest into their culture. One way of doing this is through tourism. Long story short, these tribes have never been visited by tourist or even most Guyanese, but their desire is to get this going, to have it be a source of income and to keep generations invested in the tribe as oppose to leaving it in search for other jobs. After sharing stories about these tribes with us, Jessica told us that she would really appreciate if we would go with her to the Caribe tribe this week and just build that trust and relationship with them. —Ummm…going to the ends of the world, to the unreached areas of South America?? YEESS.
Now, with the World Race, we fundraise enough to allot us about $10 a day. In order to go meet this tribe, who are about 3-4 hours away, and be able to stay the night, and have something to eat, it would obviously cost more than $10 a day. So some of my teammates began to reach out to people back home. And within a few hours one of my teammates told us that her mom and dad offered to pay the way for all of us to go (around $500) !!! WHAT?! Blessing beyond belief. Well, tomorrow we leave to meet and build relationship with this tribe (actually,come to think of it, I’m not entirely sure what the next two days will look like, how exciting) and all I can say is this is so clearly God ordained!
These experiences have been continuously blowing my mind. Our squad leader told us something that has been on my mind, “when something great happens we so often say, ‘wow, God sure did show up’, but God is always around, He is always present, it is US who finally show up and are obedient to what He is telling us to do”
This week, will you intentionally ask God to reveal who He wants you to talk to, or how you can be a part of the plan He already has. Believe me, He will amaze you in some creative ways.
In Him,
Lila
